Antigone

Throughout the play i found out that the fact that Antigone is a women matters for these time period.  I can see that the system they had was sexist favoring males and putting females down. and example is "good lives are made so by discipline. We keep the laws then, and the lawmakers, and not woman shall seduce us. If we must lose, let's lose to a man, at least! is a woman stronger than we?." here we clearly see that the power is balanced by men only and that women's opinion are not taken in count. 

Obama the 44th President of the United States

           It was not a real surprise for me that Obama got re-elected; he was stronger and offer what the country needs the most right now. not wars not more independence or drastically changes in the system. I want to believe that Obama will do a good for the next four years and that its not just a fixed election as many people say.

Collabo Stars

This image portrays Clytemnestra and Ageisthus after they killed Agamennon. We chose this picture because the image in the background *old man* looks like Agamennon haunting them. The woman looks like she enately wanted to hurt him but the man did not really want to be in the act. The clothes represent the darkness and evil. The lighting is very timid, gloomy looking.

http://mason.gmu.edu/~oarans/orest.html

               Here is a list I found in the link and I think it’s very useful. The link talks about the background of Electra. It’s not focus on it but it’s about the house of Pelops. It answered many of my questions of where the characters f Electra came from.

AEGISTHUS - He avenged his family through the love of the enemy's wife.

AGAMEMNON - Military commander of all Greeks.

APOLLO - God who loved Cassandra in vain.

ARTEMIS - Goddess, sister of Apollo, demanding the sacrifice of the king's daughter.

ATHENA - Goddess who found a mutually acceptable solution.

ATREUS - He cooked cannibalistic dinner for his brother.

CASSANDRA - Captive princess, prophetic virgin.

CLYTEMNESTRA - She killed her victorious husband.

DELPHI - Central oracle of the world.

ELECTRA - She helped her brother to kill their mother.

ERINNYES (Furies) - They chased Orestes around the world.

EUMENIDES - Euphemistic name of the spirits of vengeance.

HELEN  - Her face lauched the thousand ships.

IPHIGENIA - She was sacrificed on the goddess' altar.

MYCENAE - City of Agamemnon.

ORESTES - He killed his mother and thus avenged his father.

PELOPS - He won his bride by chariot-race.

PYLADES - He followed his matricide friend on the mission.

TANTALUS - He cooked his son, Pelops, for the party of the gods. Tantalus was punished in the underworld by eternal thirst and hunger in view of drink and food: hence "tantalize."

THYESTES - He ate his children for dinner.

TROY - City destroyed by Agamemnon.

Final Presidential Debate

       
                       On this last debate Obama was really strong, he attracted Romney at every single opportunity. I was able to see how Obama has a better use of language, I like the Obama had the opportunity to talk about what he did during the last four years and that this time he control the entire debate and Romney juts followed him just saying he agrees with the president. Once again Romney showed his war preference, he wants to start a war at any point even if its with product trades with China. I think Romney's view is always in the business and military side. He has good points but for me those are not relevant to the present necessities of the country while Obama has more experience about the present problem and his view relates more to what we as nation need, for sure we don't need a war or know the president loves teachers.    

Boys Don't Cry Thoughts

      Part I: Brandon Teena's decision of hiding the true of what genre she really was from everyone, and just acting as a boy and live that way among everyone in the small town was the main cause of the violence that took place when they found Brandon was really a girl. The ignorance of everyone in the town also contributed to the tragedy. The lack of family values showed especially by Lana’s mother and the lack of sympathy from everyone that didn't allow them to understand Brandon were direct factors for Brandon’s death.

    Part II: Plato’s allegory of the cave talks about people lack in the cave who think what they see and hear is the only true. In could be apply to Boys Don’t Cry; all of them in the town believe that what they do is fine like having such a poor valorous life style. We see that with the family structure showed by Lana’s family. Because all they see is what is around them, they couldn't accept anything else like Brandon reason for acting as a boy. Brandon, her city friend and later on Lana would be the characters trying to get out of the cave however we see these contrast on Brandon decision of going to a small town or in other words getting herself inside the cave even when she was not part of it. According to Plato once you rich the light is hard to communicate with those how still inside the cave and in would be really difficult to make them see their ignorant since they lived that way the entire time, and I think Brandon put that in test and all she got was her death. 

Vice president Debate

            I could see how clear this debate was in each point as I could see that Paul Ryan took a similar position to the first presidential debate; Paul Ryan started to attack the administration, blaming it for all the plans that they were able to apply which was the same strategy Romney took against Obama. I liked the way Joe Biden defend his ideas and contradict any of Ryan’s words as he also talked in favor of Obama. There was something I didn't like and it was how the topic of war was developed. Paul Ryan has a strong idea that war is the solution; it means that he wants to have the Middle East under control by United States’ Army. He wants to bring stronger security there but I agree more with Joe Biden who believes war should be the last option. Biden is aware of the gravity of the situation but he support the president words "We will not allow them acquire a nuclear weapon" which is simply check their movements without out oppression and it later require stronger action we know the world would support the United States decision.

            I found out new facts that weren't clear in Romney speech; Republicans are planning to reform Medicare for the present generation and keep it for the old generation to ensure it for the future but it seems weak for me since it looks so perfect to work without spending so much money on it. I completely agree that democrats are stronger at Medicare and social security and we can see it throughout the past. It’s obvious that they have good ideas but the most important problem is that they need to understand that all this process is to decide which political party will take control of the nation but I can see and they themselves talked about it that each party is opposing each other and working hard to not let them accomplish their plans. 

related articles to Matthew Shepard's death

                   Writing October Morning: A Song for Matthew Shepard: An 11-Year Journey

             Leslea Newman was going to give a speech about her son's book Heather has two Mommies the same day Matthew Shepard died which also happened to be the National Coming Out Day. She found out that Matt was going to attend her speech since it was presented at the the University of Wyoming  and he was part of the gay association. She made the promise to help the world remember Matthew; 11 years later on April 12, 2010, she finish writing a book in Matthew's memory; 30 poems dedicated to Matthew. 

           Here is the link if you are interested in reading more:

           http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leslea-newman/october-mourning-a-song-for-matthew-shepard_b_1909595.html

The History of Coming Out

            On October 11, 1987 united stated viewed the second care demonstration for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people. it founded many organization in pro of LGBT and since then October 11 became known as The Coming Out Day to commemorate this great March.   

       Read more:

             http://www.hrc.org/resources/entry/the-history-of-coming-out

Presidential Debate

          First, I am quite satisfied with both arguments, president Obama and governor Romney. they clearly stated their own point of view about: economy, taxes, jobs, education, medicare; which, could prevent a collapse. Each of them smartly developed their ideas as a way to support the idea of why either of them would do a good job as the president of the United States.
          Their point about economic is kind of confusing since they had not specific statement on it. Ideas like making new plans and programs or cutting actual programs sound great but the details of how to get to do it were not clear. we need a less attacking process on it and more talking about their specific goals at economic.
          Taxes was a very important point on this debate, how to deal with taxes is really important for each of us. Both have logic in their ideas for taxes since they want to cut taxes for meddle-class  but in difference Obama wants to increase taxes for business sounds good if they are doing good but he didn't talk abut the inflation that i am sure will increase if he increase taxes for companies; while, Romney is aware of the inflation but wants to keep reduce taxes for small companies as well but as Obama said many of those companies a run for really wealthy people. its a important point we need to pay attention since it leads to the next point, jobs. 
          Romney believes that increasing taxes for companies will kill jobs but I think that it will still happen even if they reduce taxes for companies, companies only look for the best best of getting more profit; therefore, increasing taxes for them as applying more regulation could be helpful for the economy. To increase jobs we need to increase our education level and both agree with that.
          Both, Obama and Romney share that education should be improved but the way each of them plan to do it is far different from each other. both want to keep federal help but i didn't hear anything about spending more on education from Romney but he wants to grade each school, it doesn't help much because not all the student in a state going to to assist in the same school for its  high grade, it juts sounds stupid; there wouldn't be enough space and would reduce job opportunity for those who didn't graduated from a high graded school. Here is when i give a point to Obama's education structure, because he wants to spend more money in books and teachers to ensure a knowledge progress. 
           Medicare is a a point they should work more because its clear that both have not clear ideas about it. Obama did help people but it could still be improved; while, Romney prefer to to deal in in a federal way but not leave it to the states which could me fine but then private insurance companies would take advantages of it as they are more expensive. federal government should help states to deal with this problem 
            I truly believe that gaps in government's plans and actions are the subtext in novel; they are not mentioned but those details are what strongly conduct the way it develops. In other words, citizens need to have a clearer idea of those details to avoid the confusion of which candidate has the mentality we as a nation need. 

Laramie Project

               One of the most controversial topics in society is Homosexuality which is found at any point of history however it has a bigger impact nowadays creating question about what is right or wrong or how flexible or conservative we are about the gay community. A perfect example is the play base on true events on Laramie, Wyoming “The Laramie Project” by Moises Kaufman where the great tragedy related towards Matthew Shepard's death emphases a taboo of society; either he was a victim of gay racism or of a robbery that end up taking his life. I am going to compare two different characters with a completely opposite point of view about this case in order to have a better understanding whether the problem is on us or on how society is established to cope with these situations.

Romaine Patterson was a close friend of Matt. Her sister owns a store in the town while she works in a coffee shop. Matt used to frequent her and tell her about his life. “He told me that he joined the gay and lesbian group on campus, and he said he was enjoying it” (Kaufman 20) we can see that Matt was happy living in Laramie; he was very open about being gay and would let anyone know about it. After she heard Mathew was found critically hurt and in pointed out that he was assaulted Romaine could believe it. “He would like hand over his wallet in two second- because money meant nothing.” (Kaufman 30) Matt came from a wealthy family and money was not his concert therefore there was something else. Later on it the evidence let to know that Matthew Shepard was a victim of a premeditated violence. “Whenever I think of Mathew, I always think of his incredible beaming smile.” Romaine descried him as a good person who wanted to find his path in life, Matthew a gay person whose concert was to protect people’s rights.

 Batiste mister is a strong religious person “He has very biblical views about homosexuality- he doesn't condone that kind of violence. But he doesn’t condone that of lifestyle. (Kaufman 27). This is how his wife described him as I am pretty sure she shared these thoughts too. It means that he believed whatever is in the bible therefore he strongly disliked gay people. He opposed any thought in pro of homosexuality stating that what is grown in the bible is forbidden and should be corrected. He always finish his speeches with the words “the world is either sufficient or it is not.” (Kaufman 25) it tells us that he is concert with the violence of the case but he strongly avoid  justifying Matthew’s style of life and that it’s wrong to accept it. Batiste minister an interesting character because as a head of the church he is supposed to be wise and should know how to deal with topics that bible is not into but he just close himself to opinions about it showing a ignorance for not being able to be flexible to this situation.

The different point of view on society can be a problem when they completely oppose each other about delicate topics as is Homosexuality. Making a reference to what Aristotle believed about the evil of humans are either innate, we born with it, or culturally produced, we are influenced by the society that surrounds us we can say that this two different point of view relate more to the culturally produced condition but still one in a positive way and the other one in a negative way. Romaine Patterson is a home girl with virtues who believed we should respect gay people since we all are humans but the batiste mister opposed that thought as a result that he was more influenced by church rather than family concert. We could say that Matthew’s sexual preferences are innate because he was born with it even in a society that tries to avoid homosexuality.  

animal farm letter/ Geo

Dear Animal farm/review

I would like to start by congratulating you all for your great effort in leading the rebellion and for your hard work after it. It’s a great pity that the revolution ended being a failure. Factors like selfishness and desire for power lead you all to fail; therefore, all of you are responsible for the collapse of the revolution; however, two of our comrades deeply ensured the failure with their actions, actions that result in the confusion of the main goals of the revolution since the beginning; as in the end, by giving hopes to the exploited animals.

The first and biggest animal responsible was Old Major who, even being an old sage pig, was not able to realize that the animals didn’t have his experience and knowledge to be able to deal with the revolution’s complications. He pursued the animals by talking about all the negative parts of their lives. In his speech he talked about how badly they lived and with what cruelty their lives were taken away from them. He also shared his thoughts about humans: “man is the only creature that consumes without producing” (Orwell 7-8) concluding that “All evils of this life of ours spring from the tyranny of human beings” (Orwell 9) meaning that without humans there would be pure happiness, but he forgot about preventing you from unjust acts and corruption as a result of your ignorance. The result was that the pigs, being the less ignorant animals, took control of the farm and used it for their own benefits, satisfing their desires, making the working hours longer for the rest of you and reducing your food rations as well, producing even worse conditions that in Mr. Jones’ times.

The second animal responsible was our comrade, Moses, the raven, because he didn’t put any effort into the revolution; he was careless about helping animals get their rights and he even had a mysterious amnesty with the pig leaders allowing him to hangout around without working but getting more benefits than the working animals. Beside breaking the law of all animas are equal by his behavior he also played an important role in undermining the revolution by given vain hopes to the animals about a better place: “up there, just on the other side of the dark cloud that you can see-there it lies Sugar Candy Mountain, that happy country where we poor animals shall rest for ever from our labours!” (Orwell 117). This argument kept our comrades from getting angry at the conditions the pigs made them live in. You submitted, allowing the pigs to get more corrupted until the point that animal equality disappeared. Your revolution failed for not being well organized and not being able to depend on you own labor but to ask for human help.

Comrades your revolution started without a strong organization that made it collapse later on because you educated only a part of the animals and kept the rest, which was majority, in ignorance. I think that the revolution would have reached its greatest aim if Old Major had educated the animals himself before telling them his thoughts that way the animals would had understood, and they would be able to be organized at creating a just society, as for Moses, he should not interfere at letting you get conscious about your real conditions instead of imposing an idea that gave you hopes holding you from fighting for animal rights.

                                                                                                                         Sincerely a loyal follow

The Two Worlds/ Geovanni Gutierrez

The Two Worlds.

Nowadays people live in a materialistic world where the power rules. Thinkers, artists and inventors are nothing if their arguments and achievements are not supported by institutions. Knowledge is used to increase power making people depend on a corrupted system; a system that encourage people to always get more and more. Humans forgot the real meaning of living as a part of the planet.

However it was different in the old times. Humans were happy, they felt satisfied and they knew how to live peacefully. That was when humans were part the Fairy Agreement; an agreement made by magical creatures as a way to protect their treasures from the exiled creatures. Those who tried to steal the magic treasures of the Planet were exiled and sent to live in the inhabited places of the world. Humans played a very important role on the agreement. They had to make sure that the exiled beings would never get close to the underground where all the magical creatures lived and most important where they kept their biggest treasure "the soul of sky" This community of magical beings created a secret place in the center of the planet where they keep the soul of sky safe. It was a small rock that contained energy capable of making anyone feels so powerful and full of all the feelings. Only magical creatures were able to be reached by this energy not humans; Humans were such a young civilization that would not be able to control this energy. Humans had a long way to go before they were ready for that incredible energy that would take human civilization to the next level. It didn’t stop humans from being loyal to the agreement but they always wonder what kind of magic they would obtain after touching the "soul of sky". “We will fly” said a human, “We will read minds” said another but some other humans were greedy and wish to get a power than put humans on top of all the magical beings.

The exiled beings were mostly elves; it was because of the darkness in their personalities that made them try to use the soul of sky in negative proposes. They wanted to conquer the world and rule every being on it. Humans had to watch over them all the time; the exiles were prisoners of the desert and the sea. They always tried to trick humans by appearing as hallucinations in the sand of the desert or as sirens sitting in rocks in the middle of the oceans. The exiles only needed to be welcome by humans to get on in their transportation tools, that was the only way to be free but humans were humble and they never got tricked by the exiles. These bad creatures reacted so angrily that they caused big sand storms and hurricanes.

Everything was fine until the day Tom; an easy going human did the biggest mistake in the human existence.

“Where are you going?” asked John, Tom’s brother. “I need to prove some thoughts I had some days ago” said tom as he left the house. John and Tom were the leaders of their town and therefore they had access to see the exiled creatures face to face. “Hi Tom” a really disturbing voice spoke from behind a big rock in the desert. It was mid night and it was a dark night. The silent conquer the place after that voice. “Come out, let me see you” said Tom with a really nervous tone in his voice. “I need to ask you why you were exiled. I heard you know how to seal the power of the soul of sky to your body that way you would live forever and at the same time you would obtain all the possible powers on Earth.” “Yes that true” said a big elf while he was getting close to Tom until the point that the torch on Tom’s hand started to illuminate his face. Tom got really scared when he saw the true form of the elf. “Tell me how to do that? I want to get those powers but those magic creatures won’t allow me because I am a simple human.” Anger was showed on his tone. “Free me and you will get those powers once I get the soul of sky on my hands, show me the road back to the underground and you will live forever. John invited him to go with him and showed him the way to enter back to the underground. The elf stole the soul of the sky and took all the magic of the rock. All the magic beings in the agreement came to try to stop him but he was too strong. Their last change was to give up their power; make a ritual and send all the magic to the sky, to the stars. Finally they did it and the elf as all the creatures lost their magic and Tom was punished, he became the protector of hell which was the jail for the elf but that was not all; before the magical being left the planet they punish all humans by giving dreams and nightmares to them; Dreams to show them that somewhere in the space there was a better place to go once they learned how to live a balanced life between materialistic and spiritual identity and nightmares so they could remember that their selfishness caused it.

People had forgotten about their past and they stopped trying to get that balance to be able to evolve but somehow in their unconscious humans feel nostalgia when they stare at the stars. Since then humans keep wishing to reach stars.